Fed taper talk led to 'cry' from emerging world: OECD

Wednesday, 4 Sep 2013 | 4:06 AM ETCNBC.com

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Angel Gurria

Talk of scaling back the Federal Reserve's asset purchases has caused money to pour back into the U.S., leading to a "cry" from emerging markets, Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), told CNBC on Wednesday.

The organization warned on Tuesday that the global economic recovery is at risk of being derailed if the "unconventional" monetary policies, which have injected cheap loans into the financial system, are not maintained.

Though major developed economies are picking up, the OECD warned that a slowdown in many emerging countries was likely to weigh on broader global growth.

"There's this outflow coming back and there's structural reforms that have not been taken in many countries. So money is coming back and now there are cries of concern and saying 'please let's coordinate'," Gurria said.

He added that it was quite incredible that there was such panicking at the thought of the Central Bank winding down its asset purchasing, as this was essentially "good news." Gurria compared it to crying in concern at a doctor after he's said, "I'm going to get you off the cortisone in twelve months and I'm going to do it slowly over time and you're going to be all right."

Emerging markets, which include countries like Brazil, India and Turkey, have been hard hit over recent months by talk of an unwinding of the U.S. monetary stimulus that has provided global markets with liquidity over the past few years.

Countries like India and Mexico needed to focus on domestic reforms in the highly competitive global economy, Gurria told CNBC in an interview ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit, which begins on September 5.

Gurria said countries must "stay the course" when it came to making necessary, long-term changes, and understand that the markets could distract them.

"The markets as we understand them have a very loud voice," Gurria said. "They're very well connected: all the media, all the television, all the newspapers, the magazines, the radio; all talking about the markets...Policies take months, sometimes years to work. You have to take this much longer view and at the same time stay the course.

"Once you have the road map, keep the compass in your hand and don't waver."

Gurria added that tighter policy was, however, good news as it showed that the economy was growing. "We always knew monetary stimulus couldn't go on forever," he said.